This course proposes an overview of current global health challenges drawing on the insights of several academic disciplines including medicine, public health, law, economics, social sciences and humanities. This interdisciplinary approach will guide the student into seven critical topics in global health.

Meet the Instructors

Rafael Ruiz De Castañeda

Institute of Global Health - Faculty of MedicineUniversity of Geneva

Antoine Flahault

Professor of Public Health and Director of the Institute of Global Health (Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva) and co-Director of Centre Virchow-Villermé (Université Paris Descartes)University of Geneva and Université Paris Descartes – Sorbonne Paris Cité

[MUSIC]

So this presentation will be about diabetes as a global health problem.

And before starting my presentation, I thought it was important to go back to

describing what diabetes is, many of you have probably heard of diabetes.

You may know someone with diabetes.

And what diabetes is, is really a problem in using the glucose we get from our

food and metabolizing it and using it.

And what happens is, all food contains some form of sugar.

Through digestion this is turned into glucose,

which is the energy we use for daily activities.

And what insulin does, this key hormone in our body,

helps this glucose be stored for later use.

So we've had a meal in the morning, and we only use that energy later on or for

activity that we're doing right away.

And what diabetes is, is a problem with this insulin.

With this molecule that's present in our pancreas that helps glucose be

either stored or used right away.

And there's really two types of diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes, which represents 5 to 15% of total cases of diabetes throughout

the world, means that the person's pancreas doesn't produce any insulin.

And therefore, this person needs insulin for survival.

And it's estimated that there's about 479,000 children

worldwide with this condition.

Type II diabetes, on the other hand, it's much more common.

It represents 85 to 95% of total cases.

And here the problem isn't not having any insulin,

it's just the effect of this insulin isn't as strong as it should be.

And this is due to a variety of factors.

Some can be related to the pancreas not working 100%.

And others are that there are barriers within the person's body,

usually fat cells, that impact the effect of insulin.

And for Type II diabetes the main driver is obesity.

In parallel to this increase in obesity,

there's also an increase in prevalence of diabetes.

And here's some data on this slide,

showing the increase in prevalence between 2011 and 2030.

And you can see that in Africa,

a continent usually associated with HIV/AIDS, malnutrition,

the prevalence of diabetes over this period of time will increase by 90%.

The second area of the world where the largest increase will be present is

the Middle East and North African region, with 83%.

Followed by Southeast Asia with 69%.

And this is compared to increases for the whole world of 51%, and 22% in Europe.

These are two pictures that I took to highlight the issue of diabetes

in developing countries.

These two pictures are taken in exactly the same country, Mozambique.

And on one picture, you can see someone preparing their meal, and you can see it's

using a traditional method of preparation, which requires a lot of energy.

Some of you may have traveled to Africa and actually tried to use this mortar and

pestle type of preparation, and it takes a lot of energy to prepare.

On the other hand, you can see a KFC, present throughout the world, fast food.

And this is ready-made food, high in fat, high in salt, and high in sugar,

which means that people don't necessarily even have to, in some cases,